Russian defense minister Pavel Grachev yesterday hailed the prospect of improved Polish-Russian military relations following talks in Moscow with Polish defense minister Stanislaw Dobrzanski. But Grachev said that the two sides remained divided on Warsaw's intention to join NATO and he cautioned that Moscow might... MORE

Russia must increase security for both domestic and foreign investors, the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said in a guide for foreign investors published in Paris yesterday. (Reuters, April 3; Financial Times, April 4) The OECD said "more stability and predictability" are needed by... MORE

Mintimer Shaimiev was sworn in yesterday in Kazan for his second term as president of the Russian Republic of Tatarstan. (Russian Television, April 3) The inauguration was attended by a high-level delegation from Moscow headed by Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin. Russian media speculated that the... MORE

Russia's delegation to the UN Commission on Human Rights in Geneva expressed disappointment April 2 with UN secretary-general Boutros Boutros Ghali's just released report on human rights in Chechnya. A delegation leader, Vladimir Parshikov, questioned the report's failure to include comment on Boris Yeltsin's March... MORE

The first poll to try to assess Russian views on the restoration of the USSR has found that only 14 percent of the Russian population consider restoring the Soviet Union to be an important task. While 25 percent of those questioned said the question deserved... MORE

Petr Romanov, an industrial manager from Irkutsk who is also a member of the Duma and a leading member of the Russian Communist party, announced yesterday that, instead of running for president himself, he will support Gennady Zyuganov's candidacy. (Russian Television, April 3) Romanov's supporters... MORE

Yesterday, the Central Election Commission registered Boris Yeltsin as the second official candidate for the Russian presidential election. Registration gives a candidate the right to launch a full-scale election campaign. Today, President Yeltsin arrived for a two-day fact-finding trip in the southwest Russian region of... MORE

A Russian government staffer said yesterday that military-technical cooperation will be on Boris Yeltsin's agenda when he visits China April 24-26. But the official indicated that Moscow sees military dealings as only one part of a much more comprehensive trade relationship with China that the... MORE

Russian military operations in Chechnya grew in scope and intensity yesterday and today. Confirmed reports identified nine southeastern and six southwestern villages as coming under Russian air, artillery, or infantry attack. Chechen resistance counterattacked in Orekhovo in an effort to retake the village and successfully... MORE

During a joint news conference yesterday with Italian president Oscar Luigi Scalfaro, U.S. president Bill Clinton said that Washington is "clearly on the side of reform" in the Russian elections and that U.S. policy toward Moscow after the elections would "depend entirely on how the... MORE